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Peninsular Thinking A conversation about Bremerton, Port Orchard, Poulsbo, Silverdale, Bainbridge Island, Kingston, Manchester, Seabeck, Southworth, Suquamish, Belfair, Keyport, Olalla, Bangor, Hansville, Indianola, Port Gamble, Allyn, Port Ludlow, Gig Harbor and every once in a while something about the good folks who don't have the good fortune to live here.

Tag Archives: Beaver Cleaver

You’ll recall we wrote about “Tent Man” Don Strom of Olalla in
August. He’s the guy who turned heads with his floating tent, made
of old hot tub covers and what-not, gliding inches above the chilly
waters of Puget Sound and later the toxic-algae laden waters of
Long lake County Park.

In this recent photo, posted to the Kitsap Sun’s Facebook page
by alert reader Taumy Laughlin, you’ll see Tent Man has made
himself a cozy little cottage on the water, complete with window
box and American flag … looks like something that might entice
Hansel and Gretel or Beaver Cleaver.

“Yes, the once dung gray tent has now transformed into a beautiful
swan of sorts,” Strom said.

When I asked if he’d taken up residence in the waterborne abode,
Strom replied, “I cannot confirm or deny at this time.”

As it turns out, Tent Man has a kindred spirit out there in
Kitsap County. After the story ran, I heard from Barbara Burns,
writing on behalf of her inventor husband Brett Dawson, who “can’t
stand email,” so relied on his spouse to reach out.

Mrs. Burns was hoping I could connect her to Strom. (I directed
her to the phone number at the bottom of the story, since Strom was
trying to rent the tent out.)

“I would very much like to introduce him to my husband, Brett
Dawson, who would be thrilled to work with him on a propulsion
system for in-line skates, or any other oddball project for that
matter,” Barbara wrote.

“My husband is a compulsive builder and tenacious engineer and
has thus far been unsuccessful finding like-minded people who are
interested in building unique things. He has built a robot mailbox
holder (you can see it on reddit), an electric lawn cart for
hauling brush, an electric bicycle where the wheel is actually the
motor, numerous fighting robots (one of which he competed with at
Battlebots in San Francisco) and more.

“Brett is also a somewhat shy outdoorsman who would happily live
outside if I would join him (which I will not, because I like
sheets and running water), Barbara informed me. “To compensate,
he’s got a shop that’s bigger than our house.”

I searched high and low for a video of the robot mailbox, which
I told Barbara I would love to see in action. But it turns out a
video would be pretty boring.